Grenfell: Five Years On

Today marks the five year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

Chris Parker, Director of Operations at Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, said: “It’s five years since that awful day when 72 people sadly lost their lives and hundreds more lost their homes. We were all shocked by the tragedy. As a Service, we’ve been working hard to implement the learning from that incident – putting in place an action plan to work towards the recommendations set out in the Government’s report. 

"We’ve worked with the National Fire Chief’s Council and identified 270 possible buildings in Essex that needed inspecting under the Building Risk Review which focuses on buildings that have cladding. We’ve audited all of those buildings and where we identify flammable cladding we are working with the responsible person of that building to ensure the safety of residents.  

"We robustly test our emergency response procedures and recently carried out a high rise evacuation simulation exercise in Southend, working with our partners, to put those procedures into practice.

"For anyone who is living in a high rise flat and is concerned about their safety, our best advice is to understand what you need to do if there is a fire. Familiarise yourself with your building’s fire safety advice and if your building’s advice is to evacuate make sure you’re doing it in a calm way and don’t go back in. The less you open fire doors the better, as they will contain any smoke.”

There’s lots of information on our website specifically for people living in a high-rise building – you can find it here: